Month: August 2016

1916 was a good year. There seem to have been several major writers to have been born that year, among them Jack Vance, whose 100th birthday was yesterday. To be honest, I’ve never been a great fan of his sometimes florid writing style, though his brilliant many-worlds novella, “Rumfuddle”, (collected in Terry Carr’s Best Science […]

I nearly missed this, but it seems that the winners of the Sidewise Awards for alternate history were among the plethora of awards announced at the recent Worldcon. The winners are: Long Form The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew Short Form “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” by Bill Crider (Tales from the Otherverse) […]

The African Speculative Fiction Society is a brand new body that has been set up to unite writers, editors, publishers, graphic artists and film makers of Speculative Fiction throughout Africa. In the words of Sofia Samatar, it will “create a space for African speculative fiction writers to network, organize, learn from each other, and debate. It […]

If she’d lived, James Tiptree Jr., would have been 101 this month. Which is as good an excuse as any to look back at one of the best and most important short story writers in the history of science fiction. Alice Bradley Sheldon had a varied career, including working for the American intelligence community during […]

The 30th Arthur C. Clarke Award has been won by Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky is best known for his Shadows of the Apt fantasy series, and this is his first science fiction novel. It concerns an attempt to uplift the monkeys on an alien planet that goes wrong, and results in a species […]

Also at MidAmericon, the Retro-Hugos for 1941 were presented. the winners were: BEST NOVEL Slan by A.E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1940) BEST NOVELLA “If This Goes On…” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb 1940) BEST NOVELETTE “The Roads Must Roll” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940) BEST SHORT STORY “Strange […]

So, that was the biggie. This year’s Hugo Awards have been announced at MidAmericon. And the winners are: BEST NOVEL The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) BEST NOVELLA Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com) BEST NOVELETTE “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, translated Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015) BEST SHORT STORY “Cat Pictures Please” by […]

And while we’re on the subject of awards, congratulations to Kelly Link who has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short fiction of the year. The winning story was “The Game of Smash and Recovery”, first published at Strange Horizons. Facebook0Twitter0Pinterest0Reddit0Total0

The winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award has been announced at MidAmericon. Winner: Radiomen by Eleanor Lerman 2=: Going Dark by Linda Nagata 2=: The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts 3: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi Facebook0Twitter0Pinterest0Reddit0Total0

As Brian Aldiss celebrates his 91st birthday, it’s a good time to remember the amazing contribution he has made to science fiction. From his first sf story (“Criminal Record”, 1954) to recent novels like Finches of Mars (2013), he has been one of the central figures in the genre. Together with J.G. Ballard, he virtually created […]

Reports of a strange, new habitable planet have reached the Twenty Planets of human civilization. When a team of scientists is assembled to investigate this world, exoethnologist Sara Callicot is recruited to keep an eye on an unstable crewmate.